


The Woman

by ranereins (shadowintime)



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-30 13:09:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/332061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowintime/pseuds/ranereins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock learns of Irene's fate. (Alternate ending for 2x01)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Woman

**Author's Note:**

> An alternate ending for " _A Scandal in Belgravia_ ". Written for the What If? challenge @ fandomverse on LJ. Beta'd by sgflutegirl.

“I just bumped into Mycroft down stairs.”

“What did he want?” Sherlock asked, not bothering to look up from the microscope.

John shifted from one foot to the other uncomfortably, opening and closing his mouth a few times as he began to speak, but decided against it.

“Well? Did he take your tongue?”

John gave him a brief forced smile. “It’s about Irene Adler.”

Sherlock looked up at John, his expression one of brief and quickly masked surprise and intensity at the mention of _that woman_ ’s name. He could tell by John’s expression, the way that he stood, and the slouch in his shoulders that he was the bearer of bad news. This was further reinforced by the presence of a file folder and Irene’s phone in a plastic bag tucked under his arm. Mycroft would never have given physical evidence to John if something hadn’t happened, which meant that she had made a reappearance or Mycroft wanted them to find her or… or she was dead.

“Has something happened? Is she back in London?”

“No…” John hesitated, focusing his line of sight on one of Sherlock’s slides as he tried to decide what to tell him. Mycroft had thought up a lie about Irene getting into some sort of witness protection scheme in America. Sounded believable enough; he’d believed it when Mycroft had told him. He looked up at Sherlock, making a point of looking him in the eyes as he geared up to tell the tale. “She’s…”

Sherlock placed his hands on his hips, waiting for John to continue. “She’s what? Come on, out with it John, I have slides to analyze.”

“She’s…” He couldn’t do it, he couldn’t lie to his friend, even if it was perhaps in his best interest. Sherlock could always tell when he lied anyways. “She’s dead Sherlock. She was captured by a terrorist cell two months ago and beheaded.”

Sherlock started at him for a moment. “Well, it was bound to happen, wasn’t it. The way she conducted business, the sort that she consorted with…” He turned and walked back to his microscope.

“Are you alright?”

“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?”

John studied him for a moment. “Alright, well, I should get this file back to Mycroft… unless you’d like to take a look at it?”

Sherlock held out his hand. John handed it to him. He pulled the file from the bag, opened it, quickly looked over its contents, closed it, put it back in the bag with the phone and handed it back to John. “Thank you.”

John tucked the bag back under his arm. “Alright. Back in a tick.”

Sherlock peered back into the microscope and listened as John’s footsteps disappeared. Once he could hear them no more, he grabbed his mobile and scrolled through the messages he had received from _the woman_ to the last that he had received. A simple ‘Goodbye Mr. Holmes’. He looked at the timestamp; he had received it on the day of her supposed death.

Sherlock laid his mobile back beside the microscope and stared at the wall for a moment as his brain mulled over the facts. He peered back into the microscope. Somehow, he still doubted they had seen the last of _the woman_.


End file.
